Where Honolulu’s urban past and future meet.

Fire Department Headquarters

A piece of the World Trade Center lives on Queen Street. In the memorial courtyard of the Honolulu Fire Department headquarters, a steel fragment from the twin towers serves as a Sept. 11 tribute to New York City firefighters and other victims. It’s mounted next to a memorial for the 1,000 smallpox victims buried in Honuakaha Smallpox Cemetery from 1853 to 1854, where the current HFD headquarters stands. The HFD complex is full of history (and ghost stories); south of the courtyard is the old Kakaako fire station, which was in use from 1929 to 1973, and is now a museum housing a fire truck strafed by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s planes while responding to the Pearl Harbor attack. Since the headquarters’ completion in 2006, HFD has been promising to open the museum to the public, but, at the moment, it’s still “opening soon.” 636 South St., 723-7139, www1.honolulu.gov/hfd.

Kakaako Pet Hospital

Western medicine is the only way to go for certain pets in need of medical attention. For them, this brand-new veterinary center (built on the site of an old Portuguese church) offers a spectrum of modern care, including surgery, dentistry and digital imaging. Pet owners interested in more holistic approaches can pursue alternative therapies here for their ailing animals, such as acupuncture or Chinese herbs. When all else fails, there are pet hospice and pet palliative care. 815 Queen St., 592-9999.

Sailmaking: a lofty pursuit.

North Sails

What do the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hokulea and the yachts of Roy E. Disney, former head of the Walt Disney Co., have in common? Both have had sails that were sewn in the third-floor loft of North Sails. The Queen Street sailmaker produces about 150 brand-new nylon or Dacron sails per year, and repairs far more than that. The main reason for repairs? “The sun,” says North Sails Hawaii president Fuzz Foster. “UV works pretty hard on the material.” 742 Queen St., 591-9192.